Carolyn Rindash: So, uh, but it was something, you know, I just sort of, uh, aspired to, you know, at the time going through school so. And, uh.

Transcription

1 TRANSCRIPT (uncorrected) An oral history effort forming part of the 1996 Rice University Women s Conference, hosted by the program then known as Rice University Women s Studies WRC identifier # wrc04202 This is Tracy Rolls, and I'm about to interview Carolyn Rindash, Class of '74 for the oral history project, and I'd like to begin by just asking you why you decided to come to Rice, I mean. Well, I grew up in Houston and, uh, my, it was, uh, strong on engineering, and my mother wanted me to be an engineer. And, um, she thought engineers walked on water and so we always figured she always wanted me to go to Rice and, um, then we ended up living out of town when I applied. We were in Atlanta so, uh, I got early acceptance and by the time I got here, we were back in Houston. Oh, really? So, uh, but it was something, you know, I just sort of, uh, aspired to, you know, at the time going through school so. And, uh. I take it that the academic requirements Yes. were just as tough back then as they are today. Yeah, they were, they were definitely hard, you know. Hard to get in. I think being from, from out of state helped a little bit, um, but, uh, I also had, you know, taken a lot of hard courses in high school but by, uh, but no means had, you know, all As. I mean I didn't have outrageously good grades. Um, and ended up graduating from Bellaire. It was like my fourth high school in three years so we moved around quite a bit but, um, anyone, uh, I'm really glad I came here. It has, it was a great experience, um. Where did you live? I lived at Jones, um, three years. Well actually my first semester I was off campus, lived at home

2 with my parents and then luckily they transferred to Ohio in the spring so I got to live on campus and got out from under the thumb of my dad. And so I was at Jones for three years and then, um, I moved off campus and got an apartment with some other Rice women and right behind the medical ****. And that was a neat experience. Living in your own place? Yeah. But I think my memories of the dorm are much better. Much more distinct. You know the dorm was just wonderful and that last year was the first year that any of the dorms went coed, any of the colleges. We didn't get in the coed college so **** well we'll get our own place but, uh. specific? Well what kind of things would go on in the dorms. Do you remember anything Oh yes, yeah, we, we lived in the lobby at Jones which was between the two rings. Everybody just would hang out there and you know ta, watch people go by. It was always lots of popcorn and occasionally we'd have chocolate fondue and there was always somebody in the lobby all hours of the night. It didn't matter, you know, studying late or talking late or whatever was going on and, um, mostly just that kind of, uh, sisterhood. It was so good and what, was it they called the, uh, the advisor group, the freshman group? Where, you know, like a couple upper classmen that was the upper classroom ****. That was so neat. Uh, it was so helpful and I think the college system really works real well. I think it really supports students. College is real difficult and scary. And I think that, you know, with the advisors, the faculty advisors, I mean mine was pretty worthless as far as helping really with making any decisions on courses and stuff but just having somebody to talk to. The faculty, I mean they weren't quite the, you know, exalted people. They were kinda humans. You could see their human side when you'd get to talk to them

3 socially and that was good ****. What else was there about Rice that I thought was pretty neat? What'd I like best about the first year? The freedom. Mm. I have to say. Oh I know the stories that I wanted to tell. It was so hilarious. That first year through '70, '71 the guard was in north and they locked the doors in Jones North. You know they locked the doors at night and so at 10:00 or something and so if you came in after 10:00, you had to go over and get the dar, guard north to walk you to south, and you couldn't stay out all night. Well, no, you couldn't stay out past a certain hour and if you were, then you had to just check out for all night so I thought hey this is pretty good. I mean I lived in a very totalitarian upbringing, bringing. Oh. So as soon as I hit college it was like freedom. So, so anyway we, um, I just remember one night walking back from north and being very drunk, and I was on my ten-speed bicycle which was a men's bike with that high bar and I was like, I thought oh I can walk the bike along with **** this guy walks me over to south and, uh, you know, just kinda walkin' along with my feet which doesn't work Right with a men's bike. I mean it's hard enough to do that when you're sober. That's right and we're on this narrow sidewalk right, and I tipped over. And like running over him. Into the wet grass, you know, it was 2 inches deep in water. You know how it rains here and I'm just sitting there laying there going, laughing so hard. And he was just like looking at me like trying to decide if I was in trouble or hurt, you know or. Right or if he should start laughing maybe. Oh really. I know, I know. I think he was probably very annoyed. He'd probably seen an awful lot of drunk girls coming in. Pretty silly. Oh. So anyway, I don't know what they did toward the end. I still think you had to get, you had to be let in somewhere.

4 It was a pain, you know. We never had keys or anything like that. It wasn't like a motel so. So I have to ask, since you had escaped this total, so, totalitarian regime at home Oh, yeah. and you found your freedom at Rice, did you academics suffer at all? Oh yeah, oh yes. That freshman year I went out every night of the week. And you can't do that and stay ****. Right, no. I think I got, my grades really went down. I got two or three Ds ****. Mm. And then after that I really like, you know, I realized I couldn't do that. Your body just can't take that kind of abuse after a year. That's exactly right. Well the other thing was there were 3 1/2 men to every woman at Rice at that time. So we really were a minority, and you could go out every night of the week 'cause there was somebody to ask you. You just had, course we didn't ask them in those days. Or we were going to, we were starting to and so, um, and like I said, yeah, I just kinda went crazy that first year so, um, and then I spent the rest, the next, the rest of my career at Rice trying to pull my grades way up Yeah. well. from the miserable spring semester and, at Rice, freshman year but oh What were your plans when you left Rice? Um, graduate school.

5 I went to University of Southern California in geology, got a masters and, um, I had pretty much, I was thinking of going to work after Rice and I interviewed but I ended up going for the graduate degree. I'm real glad I did at the time. Um, and I went out there. So you went straight through from undergrad Yeah, mm hmm. to graduate schedule? Yeah, six years, uh, straight through. And I went out there, um, went out to USC to study with a professor who was coauthor of one of the professors here in the geology department. So it was kind of, it was fun. And I was very serious about geology I should say also besides the coming in late and drinking and dating. I was just as serious about geology as I was men. So how'd you wind up back in Houston after you went out there to study geology? Um, for LA I went to Denver area for 14 years and then my husband got transferred to Houston. He's with an oil company. I used to be in the oil business but I'm no longer in ****. Uh, so we moved here and, uh, we've been back five years and this is the third time I've lived in Houston so **** interesting. It, it's okay. I like being near Rice again. I like ****. Do you do, do you associate much with the campus activities or anything? Um, we come to football games occasionally.

6 We come to basketball and baseball occasionally. Um, my husband loves **** so, um, and I come down to the geology department. They have lectures **** couple times a month. Usually come to one of those and ****. ****. **** reunions ****, helicopter, um, I've come down here a few times with my kids just to walk around. And take pictures of the azaleas and that kinda stuff so. We live a long, long way from **** I don't get here as much as I would. Well you could probably ride in with me. What part of town do you live in? I live in East San Antonio. Um. That's a little bit further ****. Highway 6 and Makati Freeway. Well I live further. I live on the **** Makati? northwest side. Oh. 2 nane, 298. ****. Past Highway 6. Yeah. Oh. I know, uh, I mean I have to commute in every day but. That is a hike.

7 I try to come as little as possible, only when I have, you know, obligations which is just about every day but. graduate department? **** yeah **** here, you know. I, I think it would be and you're in the Yeah, uh, that would be fun, the graduate school. I think coming to graduate school here would be fun. Well you could always go back. Yeah, I could. I've talked to 'em actually once briefly, education but, but I always hung out with a lot of the graduate students in, in geology **** a couple years and **** great life. Maybe I'm in the wrong discipline. Just poor, poor but fun so. But, um. So you mentioned that you, uh, had some really good friends while you were here. Do you stay in touch with any of your? Yeah, in fact my, uh, roommate from Jones called me like a month ago and said I'm gonna come to town. She's in Florida, and she said I'm gonna come to town for this conference and why don't you come with me. And I said yeah, I was lookin' at that, you know, and so, um, and also we have another friend, um, who's been in Houston the whole time who lives in ****, and I see her probably three times a year, four times a year. We get together with our families and she's got a mess of kids and, um, my kids are little bit older but not a lot. And so we, uh, we actually got my daughter to babysit and we all went out and did an adult evening, went out to dinner and dessert and, uh, I think we'd go to a movie if we, if the four of us could agree on something but the last time we tried, it was like, it was like Nixon versus Sense and Sensibility versus, uh, Gary wanted to see that Mel Brooks movie with, uh, Mel Brooks about space or something. I didn't **** anyway. Mm. No, the vampire, Mel Brooks has a vampire movie out. We have a pretty wide range of tastes and so we just go eat. But, uh, so yeah I think, I think my husband and I both enjoy gettin' back here.

8 My husband's a '73 graduate of Rice and we, we were laughin' the other day, yesterday 'cause, uh, Jan and I who's here, Jan Solomon, we were talkin' to somebody about, it was a woman who is a wife student resident and we just kinda went **** and we were here and we were laughin' and it was just like, you know, we spent a lotta time over there and we thought it was kind of a raunchy college, you know. It had a raunchy reputation and pretty male too. And somebody said well it's still kinda raunchy. And I laughed. You know it's funny after 20 some years ****. Do you think your kids will wanna go here? Well my older daughter actually does and you know now that I'm thinking about, I mean she's in all of seventh grade. But we're thinking about high school courses and what to take, what high school to go to and how that influences your college and, um, what college will she go to and I really, when I think of college for my kids, I really think of this kind of place. A school this size, um, with this kind of atmosphere and, I mean academic standards are a big thing that I think even more than that, it's the size and the atmosphere, at least for an undergraduate. the hordes. I don't know. I just like that feeling that you know, uh, you're not lost in Right. So I don't know, she says she wants to come here. She's gonna have to work on her Algebra if she's gonna do that. I don't have to worry about. I made a huge mistake **** taking Algebra 1 which is a ninth grade course. And she, she can do it brain wise but her maturity isn't there. She's always been a very good student. This year she just couldn't care less.

9 Well, she's been making **** and stuff ****. Maybe she'll get over it in time for high school. high school records. I hope so. I hope so, except the grades from this algebra will go on her Oh, sure. So far she's been making Bs but I don't think she's gonna make a B this **** or D. So, um. Oh, well. But, you know, you can only, you don't have kids yet, right? Uh uh. You can only harangue them for so long. Right, I can speak as a person who was harangued with a similar situation. Oh, I was harangued, yeah. Algebra, in fact, it was a D for me. Yeah, yeah. But then I would take it again and get an A, so. Like you said, it was just, for me, it was just a matter of doing the homework assignments that I wasn't doing. Wow. Sarah just, Sarah just, yeah, yeah, it's the homework, you know. She's just not into it. I ****. I guess I probably can't eat and talk, huh? No, no. What did I do that I was most proud of? I don't know. That's a tough one. Getting through geology I think probably. Um, social life was kind of weird at that time just 'cause there were so many men and so few women. It made things real, um, unbalanced. In all the campus events, you know, the women always had, you know, a bunch of guys around, it was great if you were a women but, it was really bad if you were a guy. Um, let's see what else.

10 Can you think of anything that, ah, you found sort of threatening about being here, or intimidating? Um, well there were a lot of smart people, a lot of people smarter than me, um, and so that was a little intimidating, um, I think it was hard 'cause there wasn't a whole lot of academic, um, counseling. Once you got into a major but for freshman, um, that first year being a science major you had to take physics, chemistry, calculus, English and an elective of some kind and then PE also and so you just, I mean, I think I had, like, just my class hours were, like, 19 hours. PE, you didn't get credit for then. I don't know how they do it now, but, but, I remember thinking, you know, our, as a geologist, I could have easily spaced out some of those sciences, one of them, I could have taken physics my sophomore year and had been much saner. wouldn't do that, so. Um, if you're, see, if you're engineering, you needed all **** but I knew I Were there a lot of women in those science disciplines at the time? Um, yeah, I think so. There were women in engineering. I mean, I don't know, I guess the classes were mostly men, maybe, you know, I don't think, maybe 20, 10 percent. Geology was about a third of the group was women. There should be a lot of women going through geology. So that was, that was good. I mean, I didn't feel intimidated. I just asked because I've heard some other Rice undergraduate women complain about, um, feeling sort of ostracized in the classroom, the science classrooms and I was just wondering if it was that way. Oh yeah. Uh, I'm sure I was. I didn't talk or anything.

11 I was mostly so busy just trying to stay alive. Um, I was partying so much at night. Um, but chemistry lab, as I recall, was, was pretty open. And my math tutorial teacher is here. Oh really? Yeah. Oh wow. That's hilarious. I stopped, I saw her and I said I know that woman and, um, I went up and I said you're in the math department weren't' you? And she said yeah. I said do you still teach her? And she said no. I said but you taught in 1971 and she goes yes. How'd you know? Wow. She was my calculus teacher. She was great, she was very good. She's, she's funny. We had a good laugh. But I don't know, yeah, I, you know physics was just a sea of men and just a handful of women and, calculus was the same. But, ah, I don't know. I didn't seem to mind thought, too much, 'cause like I said, I was really enjoying meeting all these men and having the opportunity to go out, 'cause my dad had always limited me to one night a week. You know, and even when I was in college ****. Not an adult at all but, ah. Oh I know what I wanted to talk about also that was neat is, um, you know the geology department was just real open and friendly. And there was a lot of interaction with the graduate students and the undergraduate students and we had three or four women, um, graduates, graduate students at that time in the department, and it doesn't sound like very many but it was a lot more than I had ever seen. And they were really neat. They were really, we would sometimes get together and sit outside and have lunch and just coach us on job prospects and careers and what it's like. One of the woman is, ah, Terri Schwartz **** manager with Exxon. Still very, has just, has, has always had an interest in mentoring young women I should say, maybe. And, ah, somebody else, Joyce Navitski who married somebody Evans over at U ****. She's a **** she was always ****.

12 I think that's important because I know from my own experience, I went through undergraduate school with really, sort of, no guidance, I mean, I had an advisor in the department who just sort of assumed that I would go to graduate school. In English. And never really sat down with me and said well, here's some other alternatives. And so, I got out of school and didn't go to graduate school and it was, like, this crash course for me, you know, what am I gonna do. Suddenly I have to support myself, responsible for myself and it was a tough transition and I think that the kind of, of, you know, mentoring, or activities that you're talking about can really help to sort of make that a less, you know, radical time in your life. Yeah. I wouldn't had worked as hard. Especially after college because you think you're an adult in college and then you realize once you get into the real world, the job world, it was just, you were so isolated in this sort of amazing utopia where you could go out and have fun five-six times a week and, you know, if you made it to class, fine, if you didn't, well, you could catch up or borrow somebody else's notes and, and your parents still, you know, support you in a time of crises, at least mine did. Yeah. Oh yeah, definitely. And you go to work, I went to work for Mobile, and it was, like, what's this? I have to work a whole year before I have two weeks off? Right. Wait a minute. I'm used to the summers. And I'm certainly used to spring break and, you know, a month at Christmas. Three weeks at Christmas. Yeah. And a few four-day weekends. It was, like, what do you mean you don't get vacation until, you know, next year. I about died that first year. Just about died. It was a rude shock, isn't it? I'll say. So, what did I do? I, you know, escaped back into the **** as soon as I could. I worked for a few years here.

13 Yeah, I would. I would. What'd you do? I did PR work in town for Cannon. Ah, okay. It was, yeah, it wasn't the glamorous part of public relations but, um, you know, it got me by and I learned a lot about how to interact with people professionally and it was useful. Oh yeah. And I think that I did mature and I had a lot more focus coming into graduate school and I was less burnt out than I would have been had I done what you did, which was to go straight through. That's good. Yeah, that's good experience too. Right. And they still hire me in the summer when I'm not getting any kind of support from Rice for teaching. Yeah. So that's also. Yeah. And you're in the English Department now? Uh huh, yep. I teach literature and composition. Great. So, you mentioned you teach at HCC? And do you teach part time or full time? Right. I'm an adjunct instructor and I teach, um, geology and environmental science. And sometimes astronomy and, ah, it works out really, really well. I think I start teaching at 9:30 and my, technically, class starts at 9:30 and I'm done at 2:00 and I still have a child in elementary school and she get out at 3:00 so I'm home.

14 Um, by the time she gets home and I see them off in the morning around 7:30-8:00. So, it's nice, and I teach two days a week and supposedly I should have all this time. Oh, right. I've heard that from many people. Those other few days, you know, it's, like, I'm really supposed to but, ah. I'm usually getting ready, you know, for lectures and stuff. I put an awful lot of time in preparing. And, ah, my husband keeps expecting that **** this is my fourth semester but I don't see it shrinking. Not unless you teach the same courses over and over for five years. Yeah. I think that's five, maybe a five I'll know the stuff by heart but right now I really have to check everything. And of course the environmental science course they revised the textbooks since I taught it last and so I have to go through my notes and compare them with the textbook. And plus, you know, things that I taught once, even twice, I mean, I teach it differently every time. Sure, I mean, you get responses one time and you think well, maybe this didn't work so well, so, next time maybe. I understand. So I'm, like, redoing everything. Reinventing the wheel. But I really enjoy it. I, I really love geology. And I love sharing that and I, I get people that aren't in there to be majors. They're trying to fulfill a science requirement and they're usually **** god, this is better than biology, you know. They make them memorize stuff in biology. So, in my class, I get them turned on to the earth. You know, I do. Sometimes it take all semester, but. Oh, I really enjoyed geology. I took it as a lab course. At ****, we did all sorts of fun experiments and field trips and I take mine on field trips too. It's tricky around **** but it's still fun. Still find some spots. There's a falls down on this side of town. Well, there's lots of falls, but, there's a fall that we go look at.

15 Hmm. That's real dramatic, so, it's interesting. And my environmental kids, I take them down to the **** and talk about the **** happening there. Yeah, too bad that, what was that, I want to say sea cow but I know that's not the real name for them. Manatee. Manatee. ****. Yeah. They still haven't announced where she came from. They were gonna try and figure it out if she was Mexico or Florida. They did a, um, a really interesting fish study after that. Fish and Wildlife came out for her being there and also a Houston water quality, or somebody like that. I don't know what they're called, but the Houston Water Commission, got together over the manatee and they said well, gosh, we ought to see what else is in here, 'cause they were seeing a bunch of fish when they were trying to catch her and so they, they did fish **** on three or four different places on **** and they were just amazed at what they brought up. Hmm. I hadn't heard anything about that. There was in the sports section. Oh, well. I mean, I enjoy sports and I'm an avid Rockets fan but I wasn't reading the sports page. Don't read the sports page. No, my husband flagged it for me because there was, like, you know, they, they occasionally, one day a week, have a fishing page, the **** sports section and it was in that and, um, they found all these aquaria fish that people had let go from South America, Africa, all over the world. Really? They had gotten huge. Wow. You know, fresh water fish that they tossed in there. There was something else that, I can't remember what it is, that's hazardous to, um, aquatic plants. It's a fish that eats plants veraciously and it's an imported fish. It's not local and, um, they're concerned about those

16 because there were a bunch of them in the **** and they're trying to, ah, re-vegetate around Galveston Bay to preserve the wetlands. And they're afraid all the planting they've been doing is gonna be eaten up by this fish. If it's, if it's breeding in the ****. And likely they're thinking the **** is some sort of nursery type, you know, environment for this particular fish, so, they were concerned about that. I think that was all there with that, it was interesting. You know, you just reminded me of something. Um, but before I ask I was wondering if you wanted to make any other comments about your experience at Rice before I shut off the recorder. Huh, well, I asked if I knew from the beginning that I wanted to make, what I wanted to major in. Yes I did come here for geology, um, did I have an advisor? Yeah, I talked about that a little bit. Um, I think the women friendship have really, really stuck with me and, and the men have not ****. SpeakWrite Job Number: Custom Filename: wrc04202 Date: 02/10/2014 Billed Word Count: 5355